Stateline South Australia

Jay Dohnt's Story

IAN HENSCHKE, PRESENTER: Each year, 20 to 30 South Australians will fall victim to meningococcal disease, most of them either children or young adults under 25.Despite the best efforts of scientists, an effective vaccine against the most prevalent strain remains elusive. As does an answer to why the bug's harmless to some and yet fatal to others.

Simon Royal reports on how one young South Australian survived meningococcal disease to become one of the state's most talented athletes.

JAY DOHNT, PARALYMPIAN: Beijing was amazing for me. When I was going through hospital, it was something I really wanted to do: go to the Paralympics and to achieve that goal and then get over there and swim really fast as well was just amazing.

DEANNA DOHNT: I think Jay going to Beijing was like a tribute to all the nurses and doctors at the hospital.

KERRY DOHNT, FATHER: A lot of people that you meet, friends or whatever, want to talk about his achievements, but, I mean, the biggest thing about Jay is he's just a great kid. You know, that's the most important thing in my mind.

SIMON ROYAL, REPORTER: Jay Dohnt didn't expect a medal in Beijing, but then he swam his fastest time ever and it won him a bronze.

The 19-year-old's path to the Paralympics included hard work and even harder training. But it really began one evening in 2003 at the Women's and Children's Hospital.

JAY DOHNT: I remember the day I got sick. I was just in bed. I was just started year eight - two weeks into year eight. And I was just in bed and I was really sick.

DEANNA DOHNT, MOTHER: And he just kept asking for chocolate milk, chocolate milk, "I want chocolate milk." And they were just astounded that this kid could just even speak let alone anything else.

KERRY DOHNT: I think the biggest part that I remember was that I could see blotches on him. But by the time we got him into ICU and into a cubicle, I walked in about probably only two or three minutes later, AND it's almost like the blotches were just appearing in front of my eyes. And that was where I realised that he's gonna really struggle to pull through.

PAUL GOLDWATER, SA PATHOLOGY: I remember Jay coming in about six years ago. He was a very sorry case indeed. Extremely ill with multiple vascular blockages affecting his limbs and digits. And we thought he had a very high chance of dying.

SIMON ROYAL: That illness was meningococcal disease and it was the reason doctors amputated both of Jay Dohnt's legs below the knees and all of the fingers on one hand. Their work made the difference, but so did early detection by his grandmother, who knew the disease's tell-tale signs.

DEANNA DOHNT: She'd read about it in magazines and she just was very mindful of this disease. So, you know, she probably saved his life.

SIMON ROYAL: A few floors up from the emergency room where doctors fought for Jay Dohnt's life researchers studied the bacteria that almost ended it and as Associate Professor Paul Goldwater explains, meningococcal has many mysteries.

PAUL GOLDWATER: It's quite unusual, in that it's a bug that's carried in the population by about on average about 10 per cent of the population. And for some reason or other, the organism acquires increased virulence and can cause disease, whereas in the carrier population, it doesn't cause disease.

SIMON ROYAL: And Paul Goldwater says that's not the end of the mysteries. There's an effective vaccine for type C meningococcal, but unfortunately, not type B, which is what affected Jay Dohnt. Girls tend to be more susceptible than boys. The disease causes meningitis, which is a brain infection, or septicaemia, which is a blood infection, or both. Septicaemia is by far the more serious. It has a 10 per cent mortality rate which Paul Goldwater says in this day and age is extraordinary. And for many survivors, life changes.

PAUL GOLDWATER: It's a lifelong legacy they have to live with, and generally speaking, they tend to manage extremely well, as we see with Jay.

SIMON ROYAL: What do you put that down to? Now I don't know if there's a scientific explanation for that or not ...

PAUL GOLDWATER: I don't think there is. I think it comes down to personality, yeah. Spirit.

JEREMY RAFTOS, W&CH EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: I can remember when we left the hospital, he came past year to thank us all and he said, "I'm gonna get to the Olympics - the Paralympics", even at that stage. And he was a boy with great determination, even back then.

SIMON ROYAL: And a great sense of humour, too.

Jay Dohnt says he chose swimming because, unlike football, you don't really need legs to do it. Even now, six years after meningococcal, that sense of humour remains crucial. Jay Dohnt's just had an operation to trim bones that, despite amputation, keep growing; and, he may face more. He says people are always curious.

JAY DOHNT: Kids are very open, as you probably know. A lot of them go, "You haven't got legs! You haven't got fingers!" My cousins call my hand my squishy hand. But that's just kids, you know? One of the jokes I say, they say, "What happened to your legs?", and I said, "I didn't eat my vegetables." Hopefully I'm inspiring a lot of young people to eat their vegetables. (Laughs). It's my aim in life. (Laughs).

SIMON ROYAL: Actually, his aim in life is far more modest. Jay Dohnt wants to turn bronze into gold in London in 2012. And along with scientists at the Women's and Children's Hospital, the young champion wants to see the day where there's an effective vaccine against all types of meningococcal.

IAN HENSCHKE: Simon Royal reporting and no doubt we'll be hearing a lot more about Jay Dohnt.